


Harder to Hide

by scy



Category: The Vampire Diaries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-28
Updated: 2010-02-28
Packaged: 2017-10-07 15:06:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/66318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scy/pseuds/scy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes you have to get away</p>
            </blockquote>





	Harder to Hide

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to **seperis** for reading, cheering, and saying plaintively 'more Nico?' at all hours.

Bonnie knew she was attracting attention the same way Elena had after her parents died, but when she tried to stay out of the way it seemed that certain people wouldn't get the hint and leave her alone.

She didn't answer Elena's phone calls for an entire week after Grams died, and it wasn't until she went up to the boarding house that she saw anyone besides her father. It might have been even longer, but she had a reason for seeing Stefan that didn't mean he needed to try and help her more than she allowed.

"How are you?" Stefan asked when he opened the door. He looked concerned, and Bonnie appreciated the thought, but tried to smile politely at him and hoped he wouldn't try and comfort her.

"I'm doing okay," Bonnie said. She had been crying for what felt like days, and had taken a couple days off from school. Her father had been organizing the funeral, and Bonnie was doing what she could, but it was all overwhelming, and she was avoiding talking to as many people about it as possible. Grams was dead and people were all sorry, but almost none of them had known her well, or meant it when they called. Bonnie had been letting the phone go to voice mail.

"Can I help you with something?" Stefan asked. Whatever else Bonnie might say about vampires, Stefan at least knew when to change the subject.

"Yeah," Bonnie said. She hadn't just come over to see Stefan, and wouldn't have unless she had a good reason. "I wanted to know if you happened to have any friends who are witches?"

"None that are still alive," Stefan said.

"Oh." Bonnie toyed with the fringe on her sleeves. "Do you think Damon does?"

Stefan shook his head. "Damon doesn't have friends, I'm sure you've guessed that."

"It's not a shock, but what about cohorts then, or whatever you call it when you're using somebody for their magic?"

"I don't know, we don't talk about that sort of thing very much."

This wasn't something that Bonnie was asking lightly, and she tried to tell Stefan that without actually saying that she was getting desperate. "Has he ever mentioned anyone that he might go to if he needed help with a spell?"

"No." Stefan was leaning on the door frame, and Bonnie resisted the urge to try and peer around him to try and see inside.

"Is he here?" She didn't want to see Damon, but if he was her best option for getting in touch with other witches, she would do whatever needed to be done.

"Probably, he hasn't been anywhere else for the last few days," Stefan said.

"Is he all right?" Bonnie asked.

Stefan grimaced. "I'd say not, but this is Damon, and I can never really tell what's actually going on with him."

"I'd bet he's having trouble dealing with all of this," Bonnie said.

"That's putting it mildly," Stefan said, and put a hand on his forehead. "Honestly, I don't know what to do for him. He doesn't ask for anything, and what he does want, well, I can't give him."

"She's out there somewhere."

"Yeah, and she's been free for all this time, but she never bothered to contact either one of us, or anyone we know, aside from Anna."

"Maybe she had her reasons." Bonnie didn't feel very charitable toward someone who had in so many ways been responsible for a lot of the things that had gone wrong in her life of late, but made the attempt.

Stefan wasn't fooled. "We both know that that wouldn't be enough to stop her if she really wanted to find us."

"That's the worst part."

"No, there things worse than that." Stefan didn't turn around and look at the house, but he was looking unhappy.

"Can I go and talk to him?"

"It's not a good idea right now, Bonnie."

Bonnie snorted. "I'm not going to try and get back at him for what happened, even though it's partly his fault."

"If you're blaming him, then blame Anna too."

"Yeah, where did she go?"

"Damon said that Anna and her mother are staying in town until Pearl is stronger, and then they're leaving."

"She doesn't want me to do any more spells, right?"

"No, all she wanted was the tomb opened, and she got that."

"What about revenge for what happened?"

"That's not why she came to Mystic Falls."

"So you're not going to have to use your flamethrower on her," Bonnie said, not joking even a little bit. If Stefan wanted to use it on other vampires, Bonnie wouldn't object, she was practicing doing more than lighting candles on fire.

"Not unless she tries to hurt anyone," Stefan said.

"But it's fine that Damon does that? Is it because he's your brother, or because he's a whole lot stronger."

"If you'd asked me last week, I would have told you it was because he's more powerful than I am, but now it's more of the first one."

"Why?" Bonnie couldn't see a good reason not to make Damon pay for what he'd done, not when he couldn't see that he kept doing the wrong thing.

Stefan gestured helplessly and didn't speak while he tried to explain what he meant through hand signals.

"I don't know what you're trying to say."

"Neither do I, but even if Damon isn't going to change overnight, he has to know that I'm willing to wait for it to happen."

"You haven't messed up, this isn't on you," Bonnie said.

"Some of it is. I was the one that told our father about Katherine, and that led to her being taken away."

"She escaped."

"But she was taken away from Damon, that's the part that matters," Stefan said.

"Yeah." Bonnie crossed her arms across her chest. "Listen, Stefan, since you can't help me, I need to talk to Damon."

"I don't think you should do this," Stefan said, but eying her sternly didn't have any effect, and he stepped aside. "I know you don't like him much, but don't try and upset him right now, his temper is pretty unpredictable."

"When isn't it?" Bonnie asked, and stepped past Stefan and went inside. She had ever been beyond the front door of the boarding house on a historical tour, and that had been confined to the rooms open to the public. The manager, Zach Salvatore had related stories about the building, and then talked more about the various founding families of Mystic Falls instead of his own ancestors. Knowing what she did now, Bonnie thought that had been a deliberate choice, and didn't blame him.

"Where is he?" Bonnie asked, and Stefan came up behind her as he shut the door.  
"He's been spending a lot of time in the library, when he isn't out acting like nothing's changed."

"Yeah, I've seen him," Bonn said, and then the rest of what Stefan had said registered. "He's been reading?" She'd thought that was sort of like seeing a Yeti, improbable and even more rarely captured on film.

"Some." Stefan was chewing on his lip, which was so strange that Bonnie stared at him.  
"You're worried that he's going to do something crazy."

"I figure he will, I just don't know what it's going to be, or if I can help him before it goes wrong."

Bonnie thought it was too late, that opening the tomb, even for a second had been proof of that, only she hadn't known that the spell would kill Grams. If she'd had a vision, a useful one for once, then she could have stopped it, even if it had meant that all the vampires were stuck in the tomb for eternity. "Yeah, let's hope you can."

"Damon," Stefan said, and didn't raise his voice, "Bonnie is here and wants to talk to you." He gave her a long look. "She's not in the best mood, so if you want, I can ask her to come back later." He waited for a second, and then shrugged. "He said you can go on in."

"I didn't hear anything," Bonnie said.

Stefan tapped his ear, and Bonnie nodded.

"I forgot about that."

"I don't know what you want, Bonnie, but please, don't try to hurt Damon, it won't help you, and he doesn't need that right now."

"He's not the only one."

Stefan put a hand on her arm. "I mean it, Bonnie."

"It's fine, Stefan," Damon said, and Bonnie jumped, and was angry that he'd startled her.  
Damon and Stefan were communicating silently, and it was working a lot better than when Stefan tried something similar with Bonnie.

"Okay," Stefan said, and clenched his hand on the back of a chair in what looked like an aborted move toward Damon's shoulder. "Let me know if you need me."

"Unlikely," Damon said, but one side of his mouth curved up in a smile that was clearly an effort. "But if it does happen, you can come running."

When Stefan had slipped out of the room, Damon spread his arms wide. "Well, you're here, what do you want, witch?"

"I have a name, Damon." She didn't expect Damon to be polite, but was going to see if she could encourage it with any sort of reinforcement possible. Knocking him into the river was on her list and she thought she could levitate a vampire and sling him with enough force if given incentive.

"You do, but witch is what you are, and it suits you."

There were pointless battles, and then ones that she wanted to win, and Bonnie picked the latter. "You need to help me."

"Why and with what?"

"I have to find a witch," Bonnie said. It shouldn't have been so hard to say the words, but after she found out what she could do and that she wasn't alone, the world of magic hadn't been as scary because she had Grams. Now she had to look for somebody else to help her, and she didn't know how to do that on her own.

Damon blinked. "That seems a bit redundant."

"I want some advice."

"On what?"

"It's none of your business, I just need to know if you know any witches."

"Personally or professionally?"

"Either, whatever you call it." Bonnie interpreted that as witches he had dated, and ones he had met while he was killing somebody and the witch happened to interfere.

Damon tilted his head to the side and considered the question. "Yes, I do."

"Are you on good terms with any of them?"

"I might be." Damon wandered over to the couch and sat down, swinging his legs up and putting his hands behind his head, projecting his boredom at Bonnie from under half closed eyelids.  
"If I asked you to, would you get in touch with one or two of them?" Bonnie was talking through clenched teeth, and advanced on Damon even as she reminded herself that it was bad manners to burn down somebody's house, even if that person was a vampire and a jerk.

"Why would I help you?"

"I did that spell for you. Grams and I opened the tomb, and it killed her to get you out again, and you owe me for that."

"Your grandmother was planning on sealing me and every other vampire in there forever," Damon said. "That's not very friendly."

"Neither are you."

"Nevertheless, I've paid my debt to your family. I kept you all from being burned at the stake, only to have you double cross me twice. Give me another reason why I'd want to do this."

"I'm asking you nicely. I could set you on fire, would that help change your mind?"

"No, but it would save me the trouble of going out to eat tonight." Damon smiled, and Bonnie glared back.

"This isn't a joke, Damon, I have to find some other witches."

"Not my problem. You don't have anything that I want, so I'm going to tell you nicely that you'd better leave soon, otherwise I'm going to forget my manners."

"Did you ever have any?" Bonnie asked, and when Damon sat up, eyes intent on her, and her shoulders tightened involuntarily as his expression shifted, she locked her knees. "I'm not going to go away until you tell me that you can find somebody who will help me."

"You can't bring her back," Damon said abruptly.

"How would you know?"

"I've spent a lot of time with witches, and trying to cheat death isn't smart, even when you've got power to spare."

"I don't need a lecture."

"Yes, you do, but you won't listen, and I don't care. Tell me what you'll do for me if I ask around for you."

There was a sense of expectation in the air, and Bonnie knew that this was where she would either win Damon's interest, and everything that came along with it, or failed, and had to try this without knowing what she was doing.

"Katherine is out there somewhere, and I can find her for you."

"Don't mock me," Damon said. "Just because you think you know what I'll do doesn't mean that you have any idea." His face was paler than usual, and when he sat up, Bonnie knew she was being viewed as a prospective meal.

"I was being serious. You do what I want, and I'll get you Katherine back."

"That you can't do. Finding her is one thing, if she doesn't to do something, she won't, which is why she isn't in Mystic Falls."

"Make her want to. I've been told you can be almost nice when you work hard at it."

"You swear that this isn't another witch trick."

"What would that get me?" Bonnie asked, but when Damon kept on waiting, she sighed. "No, it's not a game, or me trying to get you in a good position to lock you up, I just want help, and you know where I can get it." There was still no sign that Damon was going to move or even breathe until she actually said it, so Bonnie went on. "I promise that I will do whatever it takes to find Katherine for you."

"There, was that so hard?" Damon hopped off the couch and pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

"What are you doing?"

"Making some calls, I'll let you know if I find anyone that can do what you want." He raised an eyebrow. "No need to stand there, this will take awhile."

"It's that long of a list?" Bonnie asked.

Damon smirked. "There are a couple of lists."

"Oh, please." Bonnie rummaged around in her purse and took out a pad of paper and a pen. She wrote her phone number on the top sheet, ripped it off and set it down on a table between her and Damon. She didn't want to get any closer to him than she had to. Then, she headed out, but called over her shoulder. "Let me know as soon as you know something."

Damon saluted her with his phone. "Immediately."

Bonnie let herself, and didn't know whether Damon would tell Stefan what he was up to or keep it to himself, and she didn't much care as long as she got what she wanted.

One thing Bonnie was learning was how much she hated people pitying her for her loss. She was finding out how Elena had been feeling for the last year, and was already tired of people telling her they knew what she was going through. At least with Elena and Caroline, they actually knew her, and had liked Grams, everyone else had no idea what she had been like, and they had never wanted to. Some days it was all she could do not to tell them that, and throw things at anyone who said anything stupid. Luckily they were out of school for spring vacation, and that meant Bonnie could limit her contact with other people, but not when it came to her best friends.

When Caroline wasn't with Matt, which was a lot of the time, she was calling Bonnie, and had gotten together with Elena to work out a schedule so that one of them was always around.

"I'm really fine, Elena, you don't have to sleep over again," Bonnie said, as if it would do any good, because she could see Elena unpacking her sleeping back.

"It's all right, I want to," Elena said.

"I don't think you have to be with me every minute."

Elena glanced pointedly at Grams' grimoire, which was open on the bed. "I don't?"

"I'm just doing some reading," Bonnie said and fiddled with her hair in the mirror, if only so she didn't have to see the look on Elena's face.

"On resurrecting the dead, and hopefully what a bad idea it is?" Elena asked.

"There isn't much on it in that book."

"Which means you've been looking."

"Elena, it's research."

"For what?"

"Nothing much," Bonnie said, and turned around to shrug at Elena, who was sitting on her sleeping back and giving her a disbelieving look.

"Bonnie, I know that's not true."

"I told you what I'm doing."

"I don't believe you," Elena said.

"Well, it doesn't matter that you don't, because that's all I'm going to say."

"Bonnie, this is a bad idea."

"What's that?"

"Using your magic this way."

"Can you think of some other way to fix this?"

"You shouldn't bring people back from the dead, I mean, if there are that many horror stories about it, then there might be somebody who knows about this stuff trying to pass that along."

"I'm not trying to build an army of zombies, I only want to bring one person back, because she shouldn't have died in the first place."

"You said it yourself that the spell took a lot out of you."

"Yeah, but I was just a little tired."

"You're younger than Grams was, right? Couldn't it just be that the spell took too much out of her?"

"She was too powerful to let that happen," Bonnie said.

"Do you know that for sure?" Elena asked.

Bonnie slammed her hand down on her dresser. "Elena, I don't know, but Grams was a powerful witch, and there had to be something else that killed her, not her getting too tired from doing what she was best at."

"Bonnie-"

"Elena, I'm not going to get into this, I'll figure it out, and I don't want you to try and stop me."

"You're my best friend, Bonnie, I'm just looking out for you."

"I don't need you to take care of me."

"Just because you think that doesn't mean I won't do it anyway," Elena said.

Bonnie sighed. "Then try and do it without being so obvious, you know what I mean, it doesn't help."

Elena winced. "I know, you know I do, but I can't help it."

"It's all right." Bonnie sat down on the bed, and Elena climbed up next to her and gave her a hug. "Look, you can stay tonight, and then do you promise to go back to your house? I bet Jenna thinks that you've moved in with me."

"She wants you to come over whenever you want."

"Tell her thanks," Bonnie said.

"I will, and I'll drag you home with me if you don't come on your own."

Smiling wasn't easy, but Bonnie did what she could. "I hear you."

With a tense nod,Elena patted Bonnie on the back. "Okay, good."

Elena had gone home, and Bonnie was skimming the grimoire when her phone buzzed. She picked it up and checked her messages and then returned the call.

"What did you find out?"

"Hello to you too, witch."

"You pretending to be nice isn't doing anything for me, what do you want?" Bonnie asked impatiently.

"I just thought you'd be interested to hear that I got in touch with somebody who can give you some advice."

"I don't need advice, Damon, I want to know how to bring Grams back."

"It's not something that witches usually like to do," Damon said. "Bear that in mind."

"What are you saying?"

"Most respectable witches will tell you that it's wrong, and then they'll share stories of how it will go horribly wrong."

"I don't care what they think, I told you that I just want to find out how to fix this, so what did your friend say?"

"He's not exactly a friend, and he's a warlock, not a witch, but he did agree to talk to you," Damon said.

Bonnie hadn't thought Damon would actually come through and had to take a deep breath. "What's his number?"

"He insisted on meeting you before he gives away any trade secrets."

"What?"

"I said that you have to go and meet him," Damon said slowly and clearly.

"Fine, where does he live?"

"Far away."

"Where, exactly is that?" Bonnie asked.

"Georgia."

"What's the address?"

"The thing is that you can't just run off looking for other witches or whatever without someone vouching for you," Damon said.

"Since when have you been anyone that counts as an authority on magic?" Bonnie asked.

"I've earned my credentials."

"By sleeping with witches?"

"More than a few, I admit it," Damon said.

Bonnie groaned. "That doesn't count."

"Look, I'm telling you that if you go and see a witch or warlock without calling ahead, they won't tell you a thing."

"I can prove that I'm serious."

"If you don't do this right, you'll prove that you're seriously screwed up in the head."

"You'd know, wouldn't you?" Bonnie asked.

"It's up to you whether you want to do this or not, but I'm coming along."

Bonnie weighed spending more time with Damon, against solving this problem, and the decision was simple. "All right, when are we leaving?"

Damon was silent, and Bonnie thought she might have surprised him. "Tomorrow, and pack for a few days, I'll meet you at your house.."

"Sounds good, see you then," Bonnie said and hung up. She slid off the bed and landed on the floor, hugging her knees to her chest and shaking. It was all coming together faster than she'd thought it would, but that was good, she repeated that to herself, and then pulled herself together and began packing.

Bonnie told her dad that she was doing some extra credit, and getting out of town for a little while, and he was still so shaken up that his only comment was for her to keep her phone on and to call him before she got in any trouble. She was outside on the porch with her bag when Damon pulled up in his car, and he hopped out and smiled at her.

"You look ready."  
"I have been for hours," Bonnie said.

"Come on, you can toss your stuff in the back," Damon said and went around back to open the trunk, and Bonnie hauled her bag over and heaved it inside.

"Why do we have to use your car?" Bonnie asked.

"We're not taking your car," Damon said, as if the reason was obvious.

"Why not?"

"It's not a convertible."

"What's that got to do with anything?"

Damon gave her a pitying look. "How many road trips have you been on?"

This was one of the dumbest arguments Bonnie had ever been involved in. "It's not a course that's offered at school."

"You should do it properly if you're going to do it at all."

"Do you tell all the girls that?" Bonnie asked.

"When they need to hear it," Damon said.

"Consider this your warning, I don't need or want to," Bonnie said, and squared off with Damon from the passenger side of the car. "If you can't deal with that, then I'll find somebody else to help me with this."

"That sounds very proactive of you, but there isn't anybody else to ask, Bonnie." Damon shook his head slightly. "This is an exchange of favors, and so long as neither of us goes back on the deal, it'll work out fine."

"I won't be the one to do that, are you?"

"I don't break promises," Damon said slowly. "Not even when I don't think you're going to keep up your end of it."

Bonnie didn't take the bait, since she knew that was what Damon wanted. "You don't want me to live up to your expectations, that would mean you can't get what you want."

"I haven't before," Damon said and opened his door and climbed in the car. "Well, are you coming or not?"

"Yeah." Bonnie knew that nobody was going to be happy when they figured out where she was going and with who, but she had her phone on, and Elena could call her all she wanted, but they'd still be too far away for her to actually do something to keep Bonnie from finding what she wanted.

Damon put his sunglasses on and turned the key in the ignition. He spun the wheel neatly and the car slid out onto the road at a legal speed, and then they headed onto the highway.

At first it was fine, she was on her way to find out what she could do to make things go back to the way she had been, and when Damon wasn't talking, Bonnie could pretend she was with somebody else. But eventually she couldn't keep it up anymore, and even knowing he was helping, for whatever the reason wasn't enough to keep her from wanting to hurt him. She was already angry, constantly now, like there was a constant hum of it under her skin, and sometimes she had to let it out, even if it was going to hurt someone. Damon kept jerking her around, and teasing her, he was as good a target as any, and Bonnie felt the temperature in the car begin to climb.

Damon glanced over at her. "Tone it down there, witch."

"Why should I?"

"You're not going to get what you want if I'm a pile of ashes, and even if you do light me on fire, I can break your neck or flip this car first, and then I'll finish you off."

"Try it," Bonnie said. "I bet I'm faster."

She saw a blur of movement, and tried to pull away, but Damon's hand was on the back of her neck before she could move out of range. "No, you're not," Damon said. "Be mad at somebody if you want, but I didn't kill your grandmother, Emily's spell did that."

"You wanted the tomb open."

"Yeah, and you both agreed to do it."

"Only after you tried to kill all of us."

"I made an agreement, and if anything happened to interfere with that, I didn't start it."

"You could have stopped Anna."

"Yeah, but then she would have killed you, Elena, or her little brother," Damon said.

"As if you care about any of us."

"Have you seen my brother brood? Nobody needs more of that in the world, and if one of you got killed, I'd never hear about anything else," Damon said. He eyed a passing sign and flicked on the turn signal.

"You did it for Stefan," Bonnie said in disbelief.

"Believe what you want, you're alive, aren't you?"

"Not because you saved me, Stefan was the one to find me and Elena."

"Good for Stefan. He likes to rescue people, that's never going to change."

"I'm going to guess that you aren't planning on changing either," Bonnie said, and slid down further in her seat.

"Why change what works?" Damon asked, and when Bonnie glared, and was about to go after him again, Damon switched on the radio. "I'm not in the mood to listen to somebody blame me for something I didn't have the pleasure of doing, so let's keep things to ourselves for awhile, we'll be there soon."

Bonnie wanted to object, just because it was Damon talking, but he wasn't wrong, arguing wasn't going to solve anything until she had more leverage, and she shrugged and looked out the window.  
She closed her eyes for a second, and when the car came to a halt, opened them and realized that she had fallen asleep. Pushing her hair out of her face, she sat up straight and looked to her left to make sure that Damon hadn't been trying anything weird, but he was opening the door and then barely looked at her.

"I'll go let him know we're here, you can grab your bag and come on inside, or you can sleep in the car all night."

Bonnie made a face at his back, but climbed out of the car, having to steady herself for a second until the pins and needles went away. She was pulling her back out of the trunk when she heard the door open and voices. It was too dark to see who was talking to Damon, but didn't look like they were unhappy, and she thought she saw them hug before the person pulled away and hurried down the steps. It turned out to be a guy younger than her dad, but other than that, Bonnie couldn't tell how old he was. He had dark hair and was smiling as he came up to Bonnie and offered his hand.

"Hi, there, I'm Nicolas, and you're Bonnie?"

"Yes," Bonnie shook Nicolas' hand and the way she tilted her head gave away the question about his name and the faint accent she'd caught when he introduced himself.

He noticed her inquisitive look and smiled. "You can call me Nico."

"That's different."

"It's from Spain, same as me." Nico reached out and took Bonnie's bag. "Please, come inside, you've got to be tired."

"I'm okay," Bonnie said, but Nico smiled knowingly.

"You've been in a car with Damon for hours, and you don't like him, you're exhausted."

"How did you know?"

"You didn't care where he was just a second ago, and you were glaring at him when you were getting your bag," Nico said.

"I didn't mean to be so obvious."

"Don't worry about it, I don't care, and we both know that Damon doesn't."

"It sounds like you know him pretty well," Bonnie said, and Nico held the door open for her.

"Yeah, I've known him for years."

"How long?" Bonnie asked. She didn't particularly want to hear about anything that was supposed to make her like Damon better, but if it helped her get an edge over him, it was worth listening to.

"Ten, twelve years," Nico said.

"Yeah?" Bonnie thought that was twelve years too long to choose to associate with somebody like Damon, but who knew what Nico's reasons were.

"I can tell you wouldn't be able to stand being around Damon for longer than you absolutely had to, so I won't try and tell you that I don't wish I could go back and change things," Nico said.

"That's nice," Bonnie said. "Damon brought me here so you'd tell me he's not such a bad guy, is that it?"

"No, he said you lost your grandmother and you needed help fixing it." Nico stared at Bonnie.

"I want you to know this right off, I won't try and bring her back for you."

Bonnie went for the door. "Then I'll go find someone else."

"Nobody in their right mind would do that spell, not with what can happen," Nico said, and Bonnie's hand was still on the doorknob when he continued. "I'll explain it to you if you want, and then, you can decide what to do, but I won't bring that down on myself, is that fair?"

"As long as you do what you can," Bonnie said, and let go of the doorknob.

"That I can live with," Nico said, and waved her through the entryway and up the stairs. "I'm sure you've got someone at home who'll want to know you arrived safely, and you can use the phone if you need to, it's in the guest bedroom at the top of the stairs." He ushered Bonnie into the aforementioned room, and set her bag down. "You want to get started, I know, but it's late, and I have to speak to Damon as well."

"Are you going to try and lay down the law?" Bonnie asked, and smiled just a little bit at the idea.

"When he stays here, he knows what I'll tolerate," Nico said, but looked serious.

"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked.

"Something happened, with Katherine, yes?"

"She wasn't in the tomb when we opened it," Bonnie said. "There was another vampire inside, and she told Damon that Katherine had never been trapped in there with the others, she's been free all these years."

"I see," Nico said, and nodded briskly. "Buenos noches, Bonnie, sleep well." He left the door partway open, and Bonnie sat down on the bed, and took out her cell phone. There weren't any messages, which meant Elena and the rest of them hadn't put together what she was really up to, and she would handle that when it came up, not before. The bed and the room were done up in white and blue, and the whole color scheme was plain but soothing, and when Bonnie's head hit the pillow, she was asleep almost at once.

In the morning, Bonnie found a stack of fresh towels on the counter in the bathroom adjoining the guest room and a note that told her to help herself. She showered and went down the stairs, hearing voices from the kitchen, neither of them speaking in English.

"Hi," Bonnie said, coming into the room, and Damon glanced up briefly from where he'd been leaning against the counter and watching Nico stirring something in a skillet. He didn't say anything, but Nico smiled, and nodded at her.

"How are you?" Nico asked.

"I'm good, thanks." She came closer, hands tucked behind her back and eyed the skillet curiously. "What are you making?"

"Breakfast," Damon said, and Nico reached out his free hand and swatted at Damon's arm.

"She's a guest, don't be rude."

"What am I?"

"An infrequent resident," Nico said, and stabbed hard at the mixture with a spoon. "Grab the pepper, and the-" he went on in Spanish, and Damon answered him, sounding cajoling. "I don't care," Nico said, his accent thicker. "Nobody wants the roof of their mouth to be burned off before noon."

"Or ever," Bonnie said.

"Yes," Nico said, and waved a hand at Damon. "The pepper, please."

"I've told you, it's better with cayenne," Damon said, but rummaged around in the cabinet and unearthed a spice rack, which he pulled down and plucked out a single small bottle. "Here."

"Gracias," Nico said emphatically and began to add pepper generously to the pan. "Would you get the juice out?"

Damon went to the fridge and pulled out a jug and then passed out two glasses.

"You aren't going to have any?" Nico asked.

"I know you have scotch," Damon said, as if that was a good explanation.

"Where it always is," Nico said, and sighed. "I guess it's better that you're drinking, I won't have to worry about the neighbors."

"Why would I bother with them?" Damon asked, and smirked at Nico, who flushed, but smiled back.

"Por favor," Nico said, and added something in Spanish that made Damon laugh and step closer.

"Okay, I get that you two haven't seen each other in years, but you," she nodded at Damon, "are coming off like, I don't know."

"Lovers?" Nico asked, and grabbed a plate and dished up a portion and handed it to Damon, and then made up a second plate for Bonnie.

"Yeah."

"We were," Nico said, and frowned at Damon. "How is it?"

"Needs cayenne," Damon said, and Nico groaned, and sorted through the spice rack, found the cayenne and handed the jar to Damon.

"Here, do what you want, but don't put that on my food."

"Are you sure?" Damon stepped closer, and Nico shoved him away.

"Go over there and eat that."

Damon wrinkled his nose at Nico, but stepped away and took a seat at the counter, wrapping one leg around the leg of another stool, and nodded at Nico.

"Stop bustling, it's really distracting."

"You like it when I bustle," Nico said, and Bonnie let out an involuntary laugh, but covered her mouth when Nico glanced her way.

"So, what's the plan?" Bonnie asked as she poured herself another glass of juice.

"You are serious about this?" Nico asked.

"I am," Bonnie said.

"There are a few things you should try before you decide," Nico said, and when Bonnie was trying to object, he shook his head. "No, you have to be certain, and even if you are, this magic isn't easy, it takes time to build up."

"You're going along with this?" Damon asked Nico, and got a shrug.

"I'm only going to show her what could happen."

Damon tipped back his glass and then poured himself another. "You'll have to do more than talk about it."

"I can," Nico said, first to Damon, and then to Bonnie.

"Is there a problem?" Bonnie asked.

"Not at all," Damon said, and Bonnie could tell they were talking over her head again, which wasn't unacceptable.

"I need to know if you can't do this."

"It's been a long time, but some things are impossible forget," Nico said, and motioned for Damon to pass over his empty plate. "We'll need to get a few things, Damon you remember where."

"I don't need to come along," Damon said.

Nico rolled his eyes, and headed into the hallway, grabbed his coat, and Bonnie ran upstairs to do the same. When she slid into the backseat, the argument was still going strong.

"Come on, you've been in places like that plenty of times."

"I have," Damon said. "And I chose to leave very quickly."

"Not always." The look Nico gave Damon was knowing, and Bonnie raised an eyebrow.

"Why does he have to come along?"

"Because he's good at helping, even if he doesn't want to," Nico said.

"How's that?"

"Vampires have a great sense of smell," Nico said, and Bonnie frowned.

"So?"

"Have you ever bought the right kind of incense?"

"I don't buy a lot of that stuff yet."

"Oh, we've got to fix that." Nico nudged Bonnie out of the car and toward the entrance to the shop. "Damon, come on, you can bitch at me inside."

"Don't think I won't," Damon said. "The last time you were in one of these places, I nearly couldn't get you out."

"Well, not after we found out there was a back room," Nico said, and laughed.

"Yeah," Damon smirked. "But that was really the manager's office."

"She was very upset when she walked in on us."

Bonnie had been sorting through a bin of rocks that were labeled as being perfect for focus stones, and grimaced. "Is that all you guys do? Talk about how you almost got arrested for stuff?"

Nico cleared his throat. "Sorry to make you uncomfortable."

"I'm not," Bonnie said, realizing how rude that had sounded. "I just thought we were here for a reason?"

"Right, you need tools," Nico said, and began moving purposefully around the shop. "Damon, see if you can find a good atheme, not too fancy."

"Sure," Damon said, and wandered off.

"What's that?" Bonnie asked.

"It's a knife for rituals."

"I'm not doing blood magic." Grams had explicitly told her that using blood in any ritual was way beyond her and nothing to be messed around with.

"You want to break laws of nature, but you're getting grossed out at the thought of a few drops of blood?"

"It's just that my grandmother told me it was a bad idea."

"I bet she said the same thing about doing whatever you want with your power without considering the effect it might have, but you're still here, aren't you?" Nico picked up a small bowl and turned it over in his hands. "If you're set on doing this, you need to at least have the right tools, and know what you're getting into."

"I do."

"No, you don't, and you'd better pay attention, otherwise the person that will clue you in won't be a friend."

"Like Damon?" Bonnie shrugged. "I already know what he wants from me."

Nico gave her a sideways glance and laughed. "Not just that, he likes witches."

"I haven't seen that."

"He thinks that people who can do magic are slightly less useless than the rest of the world."

"Wow, and that's a nice way of saying that he's a jerk in another way, thanks for letting me know," Bonnie said.

Nico put a hand on her arm and Bonnie glanced down. "What?"

"It's more than that, Bonnie. Vampires like things that aren't the same, and a witch is never going to be predictable. He won't get bored with you."

"Yeah? Why did he leave you?"

"Lots of reasons, but he usually comes back."

"When he wants something?"

"Everyone wants something, Bonnie. Damon is just really bad at waiting around for it."

"What did he want from you?"

"The tomb in Mystic Falls, he wanted it open, but I couldn't do it."

"Why not?"

"Warlocks and witches can both do magic, but we don't do the same kind. It's like if you think about magnets, there are different polarities, and that's the way it is with us. If you do a spell, I can't undo it, not without another witch."

"Because I'm a girl?"

"Yes, and your energy is tied up in whatever spell you do, so it's tied to you." Nico nodded and handed a large purple crystal to Bonnie. "See how that feels."

Bonnie looked at the crystal and then back at Nico. "It's heavy."

Nico rolled his eyes. "No, I meant, what does it feel like inside you. Do you get anything off it?"

She concentrated, but there was nothing, and Bonnie shook her head. "No, sorry." She handed it back, and Nico dropped it back in the bin and continued sorting through the rest of the crystals.

"What you need is something that resonates with you. That means it's right for you then you can use it in spells for a little bit of extra kick."

"Okay." She watched him for a little longer and checked to see that Damon was still on the other side of the store, and she could pretend, out of hearing range. "Who taught you all of this?"

"I had friends who were into it in school, and we found some of it together, but only one of them had any real power. We got together and figured some things out on our own." Nico held up another crystal, tossed it from one hand to the other, and put it back with grunt.

"Where are they now?"

"He's dead." Nico's free hand clenched on the edge of the bin, and then he breathed out and relaxed it. "Has been for years."

"What happened?"

"Magic happened, the same way it did to your grandmother. He got in too deep, and I couldn't pull him out in time."

"It's not your fault," Bonnie said.

"No, it was, I came up with the spell, and I wanted to do it so badly that I didn't even take any precautions. The thing we did drained him dry of everything, and I couldn't do anything to help him."

Bonnie thought it over. "But you weren't the one that killed him, you shouldn't think like that."

"The same goes for you," Nico said, and Bonnie stepped back.

"What happened with Grams was different."

"How?"

"We were holding the tomb open together, and I lost it for a second, I wasn't strong enough, and she must have taken the load instead."

"If your grandmother was as good a witch as you say, then she knew what could happen when she started that spell, and she chose to do what she did. You can't change that."

"Yes, I can, I'll find a way," Bonnie said.

Nico shrugged. "It won't go well, but if that's what you want-" He pulled out a green crystal, and held it tightly. "Yeah, I think this one will work, try it."  
This time, Bonnie felt a vibration in the crystal and it was warm in her hand. "Wow."

"That's perfect," Nico said, and guided Bonnie toward the register, cradling the small bowl he'd found earlier. "Damon, did you find what we need?"

Damon strolled up and held up a small knife with a plain black handle and in his other hand were a bunch of sticks of incense. "I found these too."

"Nice," Nico said, and leaned in to kiss Damon on the cheek. "Okay," he said to the cashier.

"We'll take all of these, and some of those," he pointed to the candles on a shelf behind her. He chatted with the woman as she bagged up the things they'd chosen, and Nico handed the bags off to Damon, who raised an eyebrow.

"What, I'm your pack mule now?"

"I promise to be very grateful," Nico said.

"Yes, you will be," Damon said, and led the way out to the car.

"Do you have to do that?" Bonnie asked.

"What's that?" Nico walked slowly behind Damon, and Bonnie could tell he was admiring the view.

"Lead him on."

"I'm not leading him anywhere, Damon knows the way on this one."

"He's a murderer," Bonnie said.

"So am I."

"Not on purpose."

"That doesn't really matter in the long run," Nico said, and Bonnie grabbed his arm.

"Yeah, it does, you feel bad about what you did, Damon doesn't."

"I know that, Bonnie, but I also know Damon, and he's not just a bad guy."

"That makes it okay?"

"It means that I'm not some kid who is walking into this without thinking it through." He stared at her. "Try taking step back from what you're doing and see how it looks from a distance." He smiled. "Now come on, Damon is making penne arrabiata for dinner."

Bonnie wasn't too happy with what Nico was saying, but she wanted to hear what else he had to say about magic, so she bit back another insult. "Does he know that?"

"Do you even have pasta at your house?" Damon asked when they came up to the car. He pushed his sunglasses up and glared at Nico.

Nico and Bonnie climbed in the car, and Nico shrugged. "No, but I thought we could stop by the store."

"Fine, and you're doing dessert," Damon said, and started the car.

Nico being in charge of dessert turned out to be a major dramatic production. He actually put on an apron, armed himself with ingredients, and pulled out three different cooking books and did some kind of cross referencing thing while he combined eggs and flour in a bowl.

Bonnie watched from a safe distance. When Damon had swung within range to see what Nico was doing, he'd gotten a glare and when that didn't work, a smack with a wooden spoon.

"Hey," Damon said, and frowned at Nico.

"I told you," Nico said.

Damon had a pan of sausage on the stove, and deliberately turned his back on Nico and began chopping garlic. He was doing it so quickly and neatly that Bonnie, in spite of herself, gaped in amazement, and then shook it off and kept out of the way so she could watch.

"Do you ever cook anymore?" Nico asked, moving around Damon and brushing purposefully against his back.

"Sometimes," Damon said. "But Stefan isn't the biggest fan of my cooking."

"Probably because he thinks that arsenic is your secret ingredient," Nico said, and laughed.

"He's the one who roofied me, I've never resorted to such things."

Nico tapped Damon on the cheek and Damon turned to snap playfully at his finger. "What was that?"

"He slipped vervain to a girl at a party," Damon said.

"Stefan gave Caroline vervain?" Bonnie asked.

"Yeah, it sure spoiled my evening."

"Why would he do that?" Nico asked.

"How about because he was hurting my friend," Bonnie said. "He was messing with her head, and you were biting her, weren't you? Elena said there were marks on Caroline's back, like teeth." Bonnie shoved her stool back and jabbed a finger at Damon. "You bastard."

"My mother may have died when I was young, but she did marry my father before she had me," Damon said.

"I said it, and I meant it," Bonnie said.

Damon put his head to the side, and smiled at Bonnie, showing her his teeth. "You're cute when you're trying to be intimidating."

"How about I light your head on fire, see how intimidating you find me then."

"That's rude."

"It seems to be the only thing that gets through to you."

"There are other ways to get my attention," Damon said, not looking at Nico, but Bonnie saw Nico's ears turn red.

"I don't want to know," Bonnie said.

"Definitely your loss." Damon began adding spices to the sausage and garlic mixture, and Nico eyed the pan in concern.

"Do you remember how this goes?"

"I remember how everything goes," Damon said, and there were two conversations going on, and Bonnie was only getting part of the second one, but she guessed it was somewhere between romantic and pornographic, because now Nico was giving Damon looks that she thought belonged in a bedroom, or at least in a room other than the kitchen in front of a stranger.

"Are we going to have dinner, or do you two want me to go somewhere else for awhile?"

"We're having dinner," Nico said, and pointed at the pan. "Keep cooking. Sorry, Bonnie, it's a habit."

"You don't need to apologize, this is your house, I just wondered if you wanted me to let you two get on with it."

Damon laughed softly. "Aren't you a romantic."

"It's called not wanting to be rude," Bonnie said. "Try it sometime."

"It's much less effective than advertised," Damon said.

"Why are you such an ass?" Bonnie asked. "I mean, losing your girlfriend is one thing, but that was almost two hundred years ago, get over it already."

The spoon Damon had been using to stir came down on the counter, and Bonnie thought he was going to snap it in two, but he just put it to the side, and smiled in a way that Bonnie knew meant he was thinking of the best way to make her bleed. "You first."

Bonnie let out a sound that tried to be a curse, but didn't quite manage it, and was going to say something when Nico stepped in.

"You're not going to fight about this here," Nico said.

"Seems as good a plan as any," Damon said.

Nico put a hand on Damon's chest and leaned into him, speaking quickly in Spanish, and added "You remember why." Then Nico gave Bonnie his attention. "I know that you don't like Damon, but he did find me and bring you here." Nico grimaced. "If you continue to treat him this way without good reason, you'll have to leave."

"He was treating my friend like his own personal blood bank," Bonnie said, gripped the edge of the counter top as she tried to hold herself back.

"That's not all she was," Damon said.

Bonnie stepped around the counter and slapped him. "I'm sorry you had to see that, I'm going to go outside for a bit," Bonnie said to Nico, and hurried out before she did anything else that she wanted to and that would cause property damage.

There was a gazebo set on a diagonal line to the house, and Bonnie wandered over to it out of confusion as much as actual interest. She barely knew anything about Nico, but he didn't seem the type to have a gazebo and then let it get overgrown with vines the way this one was.

Leaving Mystic Falls to find someone who knew more about magic than the David Copperfield stuff had sounded like a great idea, and Bonnie had been feeling proud of herself for taking steps to get what she wanted, but now, in a strange place, with two guys, one a stranger, and the other she wished would go somewhere else, she wasn't so sure anymore what she was doing. She stayed in the gazebo until it got so dark that the only thing she could see of the house were the lighted windows until Nico came outside and flicked a switch, and lights came on all along the walkway.

"You should come in, the food is ready," Nico said.

"Did you guys already eat?" Bonnie asked.

"We did." Nico was waiting on the steps, and Bonnie told herself that acting like a child was really dumb, and Nico was pretending that he hadn't noticed, which was nice of him.

"I just had to get away from him," Bonnie said. "We don't hang out much if I can help it, and he bothers me."

"I can see that," Nico said as he ushered her inside again.

"How do you stand him?"

Nico wasn't offended. "I told you, I attract that type of guy."

"But you don't have to date them," Bonnie said, which was something she'd been trying to tell Caroline for years, but it never got through to her. Matt was a change on a lot of levels, and Bonnie was hoping that it worked out for both of them.

"Sometimes you think you do because it's all that you deserve, and then you might find that they have their good points," Nico said.

"He does?" Bonnie hadn't seen any of them. Damon was charming and could get nearly anyone to do what he wanted, and those he couldn't persuade, he influenced, but Nico didn't act like he'd had his brain scrambled by Damon, not the way Caroline had when she said there was nothing wrong.

"Yes," Nico said, but didn't offer anything more than that. "Are you still hungry?"

Bonnie followed Nico into the kitchen and watched as he grabbed a towel, and slid a plate neatly out of the oven. "Careful, it's hot."

Bonnie accepted a fork and dug in, surprised at how good it was. "I didn't think he could cook."

Nico shrugged. "I didn't believe him either, at first, but one of us had to, otherwise we would have starved." He ducked behind the open door to the fridge and emerged with a dish. He held it up to Bonnie, and when she saw what it was, she gave him a hopeful look, and he smiled.

"Not Damon." He would find somebody to bite, that much Bonnie knew for sure. She didn't know how many people had been killed in Mystic Falls since Damon came to town, there were still people missing, the usual campers who could have gotten lost, but if he was keeping to form, then he'd been having his kind of fun, and that was likely the way he'd always done it.  
Nico sliced off a piece of tiramisu and eased it onto a small dish and slid it toward Bonnie.

"He likes food too."

"It's not like he needs it." Bonnie eyed the tiramisu longingly, and admitted that she wanted to finish the pasta first, even if she still wasn't positive the fact that Damon had made it didn't break some rule of nature. If he stuck to cooking, he could probably get people to offer him a drink instead of having to attack them.

"No, but I think it's something he likes to do anyway," Nico said.

Bonnie saw that only her portion of tiramisu had been eaten. "He doesn't like sweet things?"

"No, we're going to have some later."

"When I'm out of the way and you can talk?" Bonnie asked. She understood why, but still didn't feel comfortable asking anyway. "I'm usually a lot nicer than this."

"It's Damon, he brings it out in people," Nico said. "By tomorrow, I'll be annoyed with him for something."

"But you still want him around."

"Yes." Nico cleaned up around Bonnie, and she let her stomach settle, knowing that she'd sleep soundly that night after such a good meal. "You brought your grimoire?" Nico asked.

"It's upstairs in my bag," Bonnie said.

"Now that you're more at ease, you should see if you can try a couple spells. Nothing hard, but just to see how you're doing. Tomorrow we'll talk about what you came here to do."

"You'll help?"

"We'll talk more tomorrow," Nico said, and gave her another smile. They were polite, but Bonnie was discovering, could be as annoying as Damon's smirk, because they said Nico knew more than she did, even if he wasn't trying to offend her.

"Okay, thanks for dinner," Bonnie said. She didn't know where Damon was, and didn't much care, but made the effort. "Tell him it was good."

"I will. Good night, Bonnie."

Upstairs in the guest room, Bonnie washed up, got on her pajamas and made certain the door was shut and locked before she pulled out the grimoire. Grams had told her that each witch's book of spells was very important, and that letting anybody see it without knowing what they might find inside was a foolish thing to do. From that, Bonnie had determined that she was supposed to know every spell in the book, and she was working toward that end, but with little success.

Many of the spells called for ingredients she hadn't heard of, or couldn't find, and others were so complicated that she knew if she tried them without guidance, there wasn't anything to stop it all going wrong. But correcting one little thing that had gone wrong shouldn't be a problem, she just had to find the right spell for it, and then life could pick up again, the way it should be. Even though she wanted to keep searching for that spell, Bonnie was keeping an eye out for things that she knew would be easy to do without much effort. She came across one after she'd flipped past incantations for curing sprains and mending hearts.

"Seeing over great distances," Bonnie said to herself. "That's a boring one." She listened hard, straining her ears, but she couldn't tell if Nico and Damon were downstairs or not. "Well, I guess I'll have to find out."

There weren't any ingredients besides a half filled bowl of water, which she got, and something that had been in the area she wanted to listen in on. Bonnie pulled the last piece of tiramisu out of the paper towel she'd wrapped it in, and dunked it in the water. She recited the words of the spell, and focused, like the spell instructed, on an image of the kitchen, and what she'd seen of the rest of the house, and as she stared into the bowl, the surface of the water rippled, and as it cleared, an image formed.

Damon and Nico were in the living room, with Nico sitting on the couch, and Damon pacing. At first, Bonnie couldn't make out what they were saying, but when she repeated the words of the spell, it was like she'd turned a dial and the static faded away and the sound came through clearly.

"She's just a girl, Damon."

"Witch."

Nico rolled his eyes. "There's a difference?"

"Yes. Witches are completely different."

"Other than them being able to do magic, what about witches bothers you?"

"They break their promises," Damon said.

"So do many people."

"I don't."

"No," Nico said, "I've never known you to do that."

"I've already had one member of her family go back on a deal we made, and that was after I kept them from being burned at the stake."

"When Emily promised to save Katherine?" Nico asked, and to Bonnie, it sounded like he'd heard the story more than once.

Damon nodded. "She said she'd keep Katherine safe, keep them all safe, seal them up in the tomb, and then when the comet returned, I could free them." He laughed. "The only wrinkle in that plan is that Katherine was never in the tomb. She got away and left the rest of them there to be trapped."

"She left you," Nico said, and when Damon didn't answer, sighed. "Do you know where she is? Or is all of that up to Bonnie?"

"She's a witch, maybe as powerful as Emily, she can find Katherine."

"If she does, what are you going to do? She has to have known that you've been looking for her, and she hasn't tried to find you."

"I don't care," Damon said. He was standing a couple feet away from Nico, and his last statement seemed to be the breaking point for something.

"Damon-"

"Nico," Damon said, mimicking him, but that didn't deter Nico from getting up and reaching for Damon. "I'm fine."

"You're so on edge you can't sit still," Nico said, and curled his fingers around Damon's wrist. "I haven't seen you like this in years."

"You haven't seen me in years."

"They could be connected," Nico said. "What's happened to you?"

"The usual. I saw Stefan."

"Damon, why do you keep doing this to yourself? And him?"

"Are you taking his side?" Damon pulled away, but not very hard, and Nico took that as a cue and drew him to the couch. He had to tug on Damon's arm again, and then he gave in and Nico arranged him so his head was on Nico's lap and they were more or less huddled together on the couch.

"You said your brother is around, why aren't you with him?" Nico asked.

"Stefan likes it when I'm not in the same places he is, it gives him plausible deniability."

"But you like it."

"He said he wanted me gone," Damon said suddenly, and Nico's fingers tightened on Damon's shoulder. "So I'm here."

"You're going back?"

"Eventually, I can't leave Stefan on his own, he finds trouble."

"Does he know you're taking care of him?"

"They call it stalking now," Damon said and tilted his head back and smiled lazily at Nico.

That was as good as an invitation, and Nico bent down to kiss Damon. The kiss began absently, the answer to Damon's smirk, and then Damon pushed up into it, and Nico hummed in satisfaction and changed positions. Nico wrestled with him and somehow won the struggle and swung a leg over Damon's hips and stared down at him with a grin.

"Is that more what you were thinking of?" Damon asked. He sounded happy, and not like he was hoping somebody would be stupid so he could enjoy their misfortune.

"A little, yes," Nico said, and spread his hands over Damon's chest, and plucked at the buttons on Damon's shirt, and when he'd gotten them all undone, pulled his own shirt over his head.

"I see," Damon said, and lifted his hips so Nico had to hold on, and laughed when Nico yelped at him. "Better?"

"Sí," Nico said, voice breathy as Damon found an angle that he appreciated, and groaned when Damon palmed his cock through his jeans.

"Like that," Damon said, no doubt at all about what Nico was going to say, and Nico threw his head back, in reaction or as a tease, it didn't matter, because Damon got both hints.

He unbuttoned Nico['s jeans with a sort of casual ease that belied how fast it happened, and just after he slid his hand inside, Nico gasped and tried to gget Damon to do what he wanted, slower, then harder, and he finally gave up on giving directions and let Damon bring him off.

Nico collapsed into Damon and rolled his head to the side as he brushed his fingers across Damon's cheek. "Aren't you hungry?"

"Always," Damon said, and nestled his chin on Nico's shoulder, then licked his throat and sank his teeth in.

Nico groaned and stroked Damon's face while he drank. When Damon finished and rested his head on Nico's shoulder, he began petting Damon's hair.

"Now will you tell me?"

Damon shook his head. "I already did."

"She left, Damon."

"I knew she would, I just thought I'd be going with her."

"If she asked now, would you?" Nico asked.

Damon had been mouthing at the bite mark he'd left on Nico's neck, but he lifted his head when Nico nudged at him.

"Probably."

"You don't have to find her."

"I need to know why."

"That won't change anything," Nico said, playing his part in an argument that hadn't changed in all the years they'd known each other.

"It might."

"It's been a long time."

"I know that," Damon said, and didn't look as relaxed anymore. He sat up, and Nico had to brace himself on Damon to keep his balance.

"Don't."

"I have to-"

Nico cut him off with a hand over his mouth. "Not here. There's nobody you need to find, fight, or forget, here. You can rest."

"Not for long. There's a witch upstairs who wants to prove that she can make bigger mistakes than anybody she knows."

"I said we'd talk in the morning."

"You can't do it, not again."

"I could."

Damon gave Nico an assessing look. "Now who's lying to themselves?"

"I know better."

"It sounds like you're going to do something very stupid."

"You're telling me this, when you want to find your ex girlfriend and see if it will work out?"

"She didn't try to kill me with magic."

"No, she turned you into a vampire, barely told you anything, and then left." Nico scrambled off Damon and onto his feet. "You're right, that's not the same at all."

With that little interlude over, Damon rolled onto his stomach and watched Nico put his shirt back on. "Is that it?"

"I don't want to fight with you, Damon."

"It's not all bad."

"Damon, you're not going to change your mind, I can't do it, and I won't get put between you and Katherine, or you and Bonnie."

"That's not the same thing."

"They're connected," Nico said, and ran a hand through his hair, not bothering to button his jeans back up again. "I'm going to bed. You can sleep down here, or you can come upstairs, it's your choice."

Damon narrowed his eyes at Nico, and then rolled off the couch, and followed Nico upstairs.

Bonnie sat back on the bed as the images fade from the bowl, her mouth partway open. She had thought the spell might work and show her a few things, but she hadn't been expecting to see that.

She poured the water out and slid the grimoire back inside her back and shoved it under the bed. When she was under the covers, she listened for noises, but the effects of the spell had worn off, and all her senses were working the way they usually did, and as that became clear, the effort it had taken to do the spell caught up with her, and she fell asleep.

Over breakfast the next day, Bonnie couldn't help giving Damon incredulous looks every so often, and when he caught her at it, he smiled widely, and Nico's eyes went from Damon to Bonnie, and then he took his spoon and offered it to Damon.

"Stop teasing her."

Damon opened his mouth, and let Nico feed him several bites.

"You tried a spell," Nico said.

"Sorry," Bonnie said.

"You didn't do anything wrong, I said you should try something, and if you're not hurt, then don't worry about it."

"You don't mind?"

"No, he doesn't," Damon said. "You should see him in a club after he's got a couple of drinks in him." Damon gave Nico a heated look, and Nico shoved at his shoulder.

"We aren't bringing that up."

"She thinks people watching you is going to be an issue, and we both know it isn't."

"Well, don't think that you have to demonstrate for my benefit," Bonnie said.

"It's no problem," Damon said.

"I said we'd talk," Nico said, and put a hand over Damon's mouth, and got it nipped, but only flicked his fingers at Damon's face and ignored him.

"Yeah," Bonnie sad. She'd brought the bowl and grimoire downstairs, along with the crystal, and now she pushed them forward across the counter.

"I don't have the same training as your grandmother, but you can get the basics from what I've learned." Nico touched the edge of the bowl, and then pulled back and put his hands in his lap. "First off, how far did you get in actual spell casting?"

"Grams hadn't let me do much yet. We talked about a lot of the dangers, and that magic can get you hurt-" Bonnie had to pause and swallowed hard. "She was right."

"Yes, she was, so then why haven't you learned from her?" Nico asked.

Bonnie shook her head. "What happened to her was wrong, it shouldn't have happened."

"It was a surprise," Nico said. "That is the nature of magic, it's a force you can use and channel, but it's not anything you can reason with, and things will go wrong."

"Then why use it at all?" Bonnie asked.

"You've felt what it's like when you're aligned with the elements and using them is like lifting your fingers." Nico smiled. "How could you not."

"But you said I shouldn't use magic, now you're going back on that?"

"No, I said that there are good ways to use magic, and others that you shouldn't consider."

"Why not?" Bonnie asked.

"Do you tease wild animals?" Nico asked. "Magic is like that, it can be good until there is something that makes it change. Any action that can hurt another person or that will unbalance the world in some way is not one that you can control." Nico searched for the right word, and Damon, who had been sitting on the back of the couch and listening in, spoke up.

"It's like driving a car off a cliff without brakes."

"That's a stupid thing to do," Bonnie said.

Damon snorted. "How astute of you."

Glaring at Damon was her default reaction to him when she couldn't set him on fire, and Bonnie was getting a lot of practice. "I know what I'm doing."

Damon wasn't intimidated, and talked over her answer. "Don't kid yourself, you want to break the rules and hope it works out."

"Are you lecturing me?" Bonnie asked, and was disgusted when Damon nodded without being at all sorry for being a hypocrite when it suited him. "How is fixing a mistake going to hurt anyone?"

"The mistake wasn't yours," Nico said. "This one will be, though, and is it one that you're willing to take on?"

Ever since Grams died, Bonnie's mind had been set on one thing, and trying to think of anything else was almost impossible. "What does that mean? What would happen to me?"

"It could be that you're never happy, or anyone who gets close to you has bad luck, or you might even cause the deaths of your friends," Nico said.

"That's you speaking from experience?"

Nico glanced up at Damon. "Some, and I've attracted the wrong guys."

Damon smiled, as if Nico was being sweet, and leaned down to put a hand on the back of Nico's neck.

"You're saying, this stuff will follow you around for the rest of your life," Bonnie said.

"It will," Nico said.

"There's nothing you can do to get rid of it?"

"Not unless you can make things right," Nico said. "When somebody dies, bringing them back is never an answer."

"But that's just what happened to you," Bonnie said. "I might come out of this okay."

"No one ever has, not and been the same person," Nico said.

"You don't know that for sure."

"I'm not the only one who's learned from their mistakes, that's the way most witches and warlocks do," Nico said. "It's not right, but I do know what you want, and that even though you want to do this very badly, it won't turn out right."

Bonnie shook her head, and ran her hands over the crystal and other things that were spread out on the table. "You don't think it will work?"

"It might, but if it does, you could die, and even if you don't, you won't be able to stop there." Nico exhaled loudly. "It won't take long for someone else to try and stop you."

"Why?" Bonnie asked.

"Because you'll have hurt people." Nico sounded serious, and Bonnie could see that he was trying very hard to get through to her.

"Okay, say I might want to believe you, prove that to me why I shouldn't do this, show me that I'm wrong, otherwise this is just a lecture, and it's getting old."

"How do you think I met Damon?" Nico asked.

"It sounds like you got drunk in a club and had a one night stand," Bonnie said.

"She's not wrong," Damon said.

"I'd done a spell to make this guy think he was a wild animal, and he got arrested."

"That isn't too bad."

"It didn't wear off," Nico said. "After he was in jail for a week or two, he got sent to a hospital."

"One bad spell made you go out and find a vampire?" Bonnie asked.

"I didn't stop there. I thought I knew when to stop, that I was doing the right thing, and sometimes even helping people."

"You didn't?"

"At the expense of somebody else," Damon said. "Not a bad way to do things."

"Says the sociopath," Bonnie said, and got what Nico was saying. If Damon thought something was a good idea, then that was a virtual guarantee that it was going to lead to pain and death.

"You got, what, a reputation for messing people up, and Damon showed up to check you out?"

"No, we really did meet in a club."

"Did you know what he was when you met?" If Elena had known what Stefan was, and had told Bonnie, she would have gotten her friend away from him right then. Not that he was a bad guy, but he had a few issues that Bonnie was still processing, and then there was his family baggage that was giving her a hard time.

"I thought he was interesting," Nico said.

"No, you thought I was hot," Damon said. "You couldn't keep your hands off me."

"I was drunk, I might have been trying to hang on so I didn't fall down."

"While you kissed me?"

"It worked," Nico said shortly, and Bonnie smiled involuntarily.

"Yeah, it did," Damon said.

"What happened when you found out what he was?"

"I threw him out a window," Nico said.

"You did?"

"Well, after I woke up."

"You tried, I went on my own."

"I'd been practicing, and when I found blood on my pillow, I figured it out."

"All right, you realized he was a vampire, but you still saw him again?" Bonnie asked. "He bit you without asking, and you didn't set him on fire?"

"That's your thing," Damon said. "It's different with people who I go home with."

"How's that?"

Damon smirked. "They have a reason to keep me around."

"Oh, I did not need to hear that, and I don't believe you."

"Try it sometime," Damon said. "Or get a good seat."

"No," Bonnie said firmly. "That was an accident."

"It doesn't have to be."

"No," Nico said, and gave Damon an intense look that was reciprocated, and Bonnie knew they were having a conversation that ended when Damon kissed Nico's forehead, and got a laugh and then Nico pressed closer in response. It wasn't sweet, because Damon would never be that, but over the next couple of days, Bonnie admitted that it was hard to look away whenever they were near each other, because she wasn't sure what Damon was going to do. He seemed to have given Nico a free pass to touch him, even if he was teasing Bonnie and knew she was about ten seconds from dropping heavy things on his head. The other thing that gave her pause was how unafraid Nico was when Damon was stalking around the house.

At one point, Damon wouldn't get out of his way when he was working on something, apparently Nico worked from home on computer programs, but Bonnie hadn't gotten the whole story because Damon started to look bored halfway through the explanation, and Nico wadded up a piece of paper and threw it at him. That led to a game of tag with a lot more wrestling than Bonnie had ever seen, and at one point she found herself shoving Nico out of the way and behind the couch, and daring Damon to touch her, which he didn't, and the whole thing was more fun than she'd expected.

She'd taken to coming downstairs and enjoy the entertainment while it lasted, so she was sitting on the couch and poring through the grimoire when Damon came into the living room talking on the phone.

"What does it matter?" Damon asked and waited for the person on the other end of the line to say something, and then he shook his head. "You're not listening to me. If I'm not there then I don't know what's going on, and you like it that way, remember? You said you'd do anything to get me out of town, and that's what you got. Don't start bitching now that I've done what you want."

Damon glanced at Bonnie and rolled his eyes. "She's right here, Stefan, still breathing and everything." Another small silence. "Yes, she's mad at me, I said that everything was fine, oh, here." Damon handed the phone to Bonnie. "Talk to him." He flopped down on the far side of the couch and looked annoyed.

"Hello?"

"Bonnie, are you all right?"

"Yeah, didn't Damon just tell you that I was okay?"

"He lies."

"Well, I'm talking to you, and there's nothing wrong."

"Then why did you leave?"

"I told Elena I was taking a break."

"Because of your grandmother," Stefan said delicately, and that was too much for Bonnie to listen to one more time.

"It shouldn't matter why I wanted to get out of Mystic Falls. I needed a ride, Damon offered, and he hasn't been more of an ass than usual." She glanced at Damon, who was watching her, and one corner of his mouth lifted in amusement.

"Bonnie, we're really worried about you."

"I said that I'm fine, don't worry, I'll be back in a few days."

"Where are you?" Stefan asked, and Bonnie could tell that he had the car keys out and was ready to take off, probably with Elena and come and get her.

"You're not my father, Stefan, don't try and take care of me."

"Someone needs to look out for you."

"I'm looking out for me, and I've done it for years."

"You're not thinking straight, what you want to do is a very bad idea, and if you go through  
with it, you won't be the same person."

"I've heard it already, Stefan, and whatever I choose to do is up to me, so leave me alone."

She hung up the phone and chucked it at Damon, knowing he would catch it, but not caring.

"That sounds familiar," Damon said.

"Don't try and bond with me," Bonnie said. "Why did you tell him I was here?"

"He thought I'd killed you and left your body in the woods."

"What would he have done about it?"

"Who knows, it might have been fun to find out."

"Is he going to try and find us?" Bonnie had her finger on a spell that helped people forget things, but she wasn't opposed to finding one that would help hide her if necessary. Being away from Mystic Falls was turning out to be good even if it just gave her a chance to do magic without having anybody worry about what else she wasn't doing instead. Nico offered alternatives to some of the more dangerous spells she wanted to try, but had tentatively offered to show her a few tricks that he said she shouldn't have to use, but needed to know anyway. Bonnie tuned back in to what Damon was saying.

"Not yet, unless Elena gets on his case about taking care of her friends," Damon said. "She keeps telling me how much you mean to her."

"She's my sister," Bonnie said. "In every way that matters."

"Write a book, you'll make millions," Damon said and pulled his legs up onto the couch and pushed at Bonnie's hip with one foot.

"Stop that." Bonnie shoved his foot away. "I don't want to let people know that I'm a witch." Bonn considered the other possibilities. "Maybe I could do something about how girls think vampires are sexy."

Damon blinked. "We are." As if it was a fact, like water being wet.

Bonnie held up a finger. "I wasn't done, and they're dangerous, which matters more."

"Not to everyone," Damon said.

"Yeah, but you're not dating anybody."

"Nico might think you're wrong there."

"How much do you hang out with him?"

"I stop by for a couple weeks every once in awhile."

"But you don't stay here," Bonnie said, and waved a hand at him to encourage him to finish her thought.

"No, I don't."

"Do you ever worry that he might not want you to come back?"

"We have a deal," Damon said. "We're sticking to it."

"How very loyal of you." Bonnie didn't want details, but she kept frowning down at the page she'd been reading and wasn't actually making any progress, so Damon's interruption wasn't completely annoying.

"I can be loyal."

"If it doesn't mean you have to actually care about them, right?" That was when Bonnie knew she'd said the wrong thing, and Damon's face shut down for a millisecond, and when he smiled at her, she could feel how sharp it was. "I'm going to go see what Nico is doing, and I'll leave you to your cookbook."

As she sat on the couch by herself, for the first time since she'd been there, Bonnie wished she wasn't alone, and she went upstairs until it was time to eat.

Elena started texting her that night, and even when she was typing, Elena couldn't hide it when she was worried. Even telling her she was doing better and learning a lot didn't do any good.

"She's going to send out a search party," Bonnie said to Nico when she wandered into the kitchen to avoid her phone.

"Who?"

"My best friend. She thinks that Damon kidnapped me, or that I'm off joining a cult."  
Nico was wearing a t shirt and pajama bottoms and his hair was standing up unevenly, some of it flat, and the rest of it spiked, like he'd forgotten to take the gel out of it the night before. He prodded the buttons on the espresso machine and when it began to gurgle encouragingly, stepped back. "How long will it take her to find you?"

"Normally she would know where I am, but she doesn't know anything about all of this, or you."  
Bonnie took out several coffee mugs, and passed one to Nico.

"Gracias."

"Next she'll ask Stefan. Does he know where you live?" She'd almost asked whether Stefan knew Damon had an ex boyfriend, but held that back, although Nico smiled knowingly.

"He knows who I am."

It sounded really noncommittal and Bonnie waited to see if Nico was going to say anything else, but he was focused on getting them both caffeine, and when he'd filled Bonnie's cup and his own, they didn't talk for a little longer.

"Is he awake?" Bonnie asked, lifting her chin at the ceiling, and meaning upstairs.

"Not very," Nico said. "He might get up if I bring coffee." Nico curled his fingers more tightly around his mug.

Bonnie giggled. "Is that going to happen?"

"Maybe." Nico poured himself another cup, and Bonnie grinned at him, not sure why they were sharing the joke, but enjoying it all the same.

"Have you found any spells you want to try?" Nico asked.

"I told Damon I'd do that spell to find Katherine," Bonnie said reluctantly. "I don't know that I should, but I said I would, and he takes his promises pretty seriously."

"He does."

"Can I ask you something?"

Nico was slurping up the last of his coffee, and obviously didn't care that he looked kind of ridiculous and about two seconds from crawling up on the counter with the espresso machine.

"Yes."

"Does Damon know you're going to leave him for coffee?" Bonnie asked. It wasn't what she was going to say, but it made Nico laugh.

"We have an open relationship."

Bonnie's cheeks felt hot. "That's great."

"It can be." Nico waited to see if he'd freaked her out, and when Bonnie managed to act like she talked to guys all the time about their psychopathic vampire boyfriends, Nico chuckled.

"What did you want to know?"

"How did you get together, and why do you still-"

"Why do I put up with him?"

"Yeah."

"I told you that I like the wrong kind of guys."

"And that's okay?" Bonnie asked, because Nico didn't sound like he had a problem with it.

"I'm used to it, and he's the one who's stayed around the most."

"There were others?"

"Yes." Nico surveyed the espresso machine and fixed a third cup that he didn't drink, but held carefully, and Bonnie knew it was for Damon. He pulled his collar away from his neck, and  
Bonnie could see the bite mark, but there was another scar that started at his collarbone and twisted away down underneath the cloth.

"What happened?"

"One of those guys wanted to prove that he was dangerous."

"He hurt you," Bonnie said, and could imagine a lot of things from a scar like that, none of them good.

Nico's eyes were flat and expressionless, and this was somebody that Bonnie could believe got into trouble. "He regretted it. Damon might not be the nicest guy I've been with, but he's been around the most."

"Is that enough? You know what he does for fun."

"It's not that far off from what I did, except I left people alive after I wrecked their lives," Nico said. He didn't look as scary now, he'd leaned back against the counter, and Bonnie didn't feel afraid, and hadn't really, not ever, because she knew defending herself was a given and that it wouldn't be ignored.

"Do you want more?"

Nico smiled ruefully. "I know what his limits are, and I'm content with that." He pressed his fingers to the sides of the mug. "I'd better get this upstairs before it gets cold." The little glance he gave Bonnie was weird, and she frowned.

"What?"

"If you've got a spell you want to tell me about, or Damon, you could come with."

"That's not a good idea."

"He won't bite, not you at least," Nico said.

"Oh, he did," Bonnie said, and there hadn't ever been a scar from that night, but her hand went to her neck anyway, and Nico touched her arm.

"What happened?"

The story would have been unbelievable anywhere else, but Nico was in on the secret, and it was such a relief to be able to say that she'd been possessed, hated ghosts, and thought magical crystals were highly overrated. When she was done, Nico was the one who was tense. "You can stay down here if you want to."

"Don't get mad at him, that's between us, and Damon knows it won't happen again," Bonnie said.

"Good," Nico said, and tilted his head in the direction of the stairs, and Bonnie nodded.

"This should be fun," she said in a low voice, and Nico snorted.

"Trust me, this isn't the first time I've woken him up this way."

"Just so we're clear, I'm not interested in him. At all," she said deliberately.

Bonnie wasn't dumb, she knew where this could go very fast, and when Nico glanced over his shoulder at her, she knew it wasn't just her knowing that made it frightening, but she still followed him into the bedroom.

Damon was still in bed, under the covers, and Nico climbed up beside him and held the mug out near his head. After a moment one hand came out from under the blankets, grabbed it, and Damon sat up with a groan. He leaned back on the headboard and took a long sip. When he raised his eyes to see Bonnie, his gaze moved to the door and back, judging the distance and her uncertainty, and he smiled.

"You two have a nice chat?"

"We did," Nico said, and dug his fingers into Damon's leg. "She told me about your drinking habits."

"Oh, did she now?"

Nico was digging in hard, Bonnie could tell, and Damon raised an eyebrow. "Ow?"

"I thought you were over that."

"I got upset," Damon said. "I don't do that well."

"I noticed," Bonnie said, still keeping away from the bed. From where she was standing, she could see the covers puddling around Damon's waist, and if they went much lower she'd know if he was wearing anything, and she was wondering about that.

"Come on, you can sit down, I won't bite, again," Damon said, and Nico grumbled and flicked him in the stomach and then slid down to lean against Damon and watch him drink his coffee.

"Why do you guys like coffee so much?" Bonnie asked, taking a step closer, and then scolding herself for not being able to make a decision, she climbed onto the edge of the bed and tucked her feet under her.

"It keeps us warm," Damon said. "Caffeine works on vampires too." He licked his lips. "And Nico makes the good kind."

"Gracias," Nico said, and Bonnie couldn't be sure if he was trying to get Damon to say something else or he was just happy she wasn't running out of the room.

"What did you want to talk about so badly that you let my coffee get cold?" Damon asked.

"It's not cold," Nico said, and Damon pouted at him, which Bonnie wished she could prove later.

"It's not as hot as it usually is."

"You'll live," Nico said, and gave Bonnie a pleading look. "The spell?"

There was a lightness in the room that Bonnie didn't want to chase away with the presence of Katherine, and she opted to bring out the grimoire and one of the spells she'd been considering. "I found this one, and it sounds fun." She passed the grimoire over to Nico, who took it reverently and opened it to the page she'd marked.

Damon scooted up further in bed, and let himself slump sideways so he could read along.

"This is going to take blood," Damon said. "Not that I mind."

"It's not for you," Nico said, and put a hand on Damon's face and shoved him away. "This isn't a cookbook."

"Go on thinking that," Damon said, and whispered to Bonnie. "He hates it when I insult his books."

"If you shut up now we might let you watch," Nico said.

"Since you need an anchor, you'd better hope I stick around," Damon said.

Bonnie had read about spells that took a lot out of a person, and even though she hadn't wanted to believe it, that was the most likely explanation for what had happened to Grams. The spell she'd picked was one that would make it snow inside. It sounded lame on paper, but the more she thought about it, the more she had liked the idea of controlling several elements at the same time and in a safe, contained space.

"Is this too much?" She didn't know why Nico didn't do magic a lot, and the way Damon was talking gave her pause.

"I'm not that out of practice, Damon," Nico said. "She needs to start small, and this spell is perfect."

Damon put the mug on the bedside table and made an exaggerated show of being sorry for offending Nico. "Whatever you say, oh great warlock."

Nico stared at him. "Let us know when you're done."

Bonnie slid further up the bed while Damon made a few more faces and Nico ignored him in favor of pointing out the potentially difficult parts of the spell.

"When you try and change what's already real, then you can have trouble changing it back, once you have a grasp on what you're doing it will be easy, but for now it's better that we do it together."

"That sounds good," Bonnie said.

"What do we do first?"

"Take my hand," Nico said, and Bonnie did. "Now, I'm going to use Damon as a focus, of a kind, and you don't have to touch him, all right?"

"That's good," Bonnie said. "Why are you using him?"

"It's just a way to be sure nothing goes wrong," Damon said. He moved forward, bringing the blankets with him, and Bonnie looked away when she caught a glimpse of his bare hip, and Damon caught her looking, but didn't comment. "Anyway, we've done this before, and if he needs to, he can use my power, like having an extra jolt at the right time."

It sounded like a good idea, and one that they'd worked out together, because when Nico offered Damon his other hand, their fingers laced together, and Damn actually sat up a little straighter and fixed his eyes on Nico, waiting for his moment.

"Concentrate on the room, feel the air, now try and make it colder," Nico said, and Bonnie did as he said. "Don't fight with it, just think of the cold, and when you want it badly enough, it will happen."

It wasn't all that hot, but when Bonnie's breath came out in visible puffs, she gasped.

Nico was smiling, and Damon lowered his head very slightly at her. "Now for the hard part," Nico said.

This was where Bonnie hadn't known if her skills were up to the rest of the spell, and she was glad that Nico was hanging onto her hand, and she tightened her grip as she closed her eyes. She concentrated, and pictured snow on the trees, the way it melted on her cheeks, and when she opened her eyes, the entire room was covered in a fine dusting of snow. "Oh, wow."

"Very nicely done," Nico said.

"Not bad," Damon said and shook snow out of his hair. "Now can you summon up a blanket?"

"Or you could put some clothes on," Bonnie said tartly, and Damon wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"You don't like this look?"

"Watch it, I might freeze you in place."

"No, you won't." Damon kept hold of Nico's hand, but brought it down to rest against his stomach.

Bonnie responded to his silent dare by making the glass shimmer with frost, and Nico coughed to break their stare down.

"It's getting cold in here."

"You noticed," Bonnie said, and Damon huffed a little bit in annoyance.

"We're having fun, Nico."

"I'm turning blue, and it's never been a good color on you either."

"Bonnie, turn it back around," Nico said. "Reverse what you did."

"Summer," Bonnie said. "That would be nice."

"Don't go too far."

"Right." Now Bonnie's thoughts went to trees almost ready to bloom, and as she did, the room warmed up again.

"Yeah, that's much better," Damon said, and flopped sideways, between Bonnie and Nico. "And now I've got a nice buzz going."

"TMI," Bonnie said, and Damon scoffed.

"Like you don't have one too."

"Stop it," Nico said, and Damon batted at him, the sheet lower than ever on his hips.

Bonnie rubbed her hands on her leggings, trying to ignore the way he skin was prickling all over, like a static charge, but more powerful. "That's never happened before."

"When you deal with the elements, it can get overwhelming," Nico said.

"How do you handle it?" Bonnie asked.

Damon moved Nico's hand up his torso and then back down, smiling all the while, and Bonnie grimaced.

"I get it, you get it on, and this is where I make my exit, thanks for the help, Nico, and um, you too, Damon."

"You don't have to go if you don't want to," Damon said. "I don't mind if you stay."

"It will wear off soon," Nico said when Bonnie began scooting backwards. "Don't worry, it's not bad, just something that happens."

"Well, you two probably want to deal with it."

"You can too, unless you'd rather do it on your own," Damon said.

"I don't know what you're saying, and I should go."

Nico put his free hand on her arm. "Please, it's fine, he'll stop teasing."

"Really?" Bonnie asked, and Damon sighed and flopped backwards and dragged Nico down with him. Nico didn't catch himself, and he landed across Damon's chest, and rolled so he could see Bonnie and use Damon as a pillow.

"Are you okay?"

"Just tired," Nico said, and Damon ran a hand down his back, digging his nails in.

"Wired."

"Hey, you're supposed to behave," Bonnie said.

"Since when have I ever?" Damon asked.

"I don't think you know how." Bonnie was bouncing in place, wanting to go running, do anything that would help her burn off this flightiness, and there was Nico getting petted and really about to fall asleep. "I'm ready to go crazy, and you're about to fall asleep, what's with that?"

"Me," Damon said, and Bonnie made a face at him.

"You've got the magic touch?"

"In a way." Damon's eyes were half closed, and he was still stroking Nico's back, but he answered Bonnie's question when she moved up another couple of inches and pushed at his leg.

"That's why he likes having me around for this."

"What do you do, when you're not doing naked things?" Bonnie asked.

Nico mouthed 'naked things' silently, and it was his turn to get swatted. "Seriously, how come he calms you down?"

"A spell can go a couple ways, and an anchor can draw off the energy." Bonnie glanced at Damon who looked very satisfied.

"That's why he's glowing?"

Nico shrugged, but didn't move to try and check, and Bonnie knew he'd seen it before.

"I could help you relax," Damon said, and there were a lot of options for how Bonnie could take that offer and went with the one where she kept her clothes on.

"I could use a back rub, if you can leave out the groping."

"For you, I will," Damon said and motioned for her to get closer.

Feeling like she'd stepped off a cliff and just looked down, Bonnie sat on Damon's free side, and he brought his hand to rest on her back and pressed hard on her lower back, and Bonnie yelped in surprise.

Damon backed up right away. "Too much?"

"No, keep going," Bonnie said, and when she slid around so Damon could reach her shoulder, she caught sight of Nico moving so Damon had both hands free.

Nico talked drowsily about the spell, sharing details that Bonnie hadn't noticed because she'd been so caught up in the experience, and soon she was curling forward, eyes shutting and then snapping open when she realized she was falling asleep. She'd half expected Damon to ask for her to look up the other spell, the one he actually wanted her to do, but when she glanced at him questioningly, he was still giving off very pleased vibes, and she didn't want to bring it up and spoil things.

"I should-" she began, and Damon lifted her up and deposited her in the spot where he and Nico weren't leaning on each other.

"You should sleep, otherwise you'll fall on your face."

"Girls like you because you're secretly a sweet guy, right?" Bonnie asked, but Nico let her slump into him, and Damon pulled a blanket over her.

The space she'd settled into was warm, and even though Damon wasn't trying to push the bounds of whatever they were working toward, he and Nico were close enough that Bonnie could feel them move. It wasn't home, and this wasn't what she'd thought she needed, but she knew nothing would happen unless she wanted it to

Which was why, when Bonnie woke up to somebody shrieking, she knew her life was as normal as it would ever get.

"Could you stop that?" Damon asked, and Bonnie cracked one eye open to see Elena and Stefan standing in the doorway. With both eyes open, Bonnie could see that she'd collapsed under one blanket in between Nico and Damon, and that somehow while they'd been asleep, cuddling had taken place.

Elena stopped making high pitched noises, and Damon's arm shifted so it was more solidly across Bonnie's stomach, and his fingers rested on Nico's hip. "Are they still here?" Damon asked.

"Yeah," Bonnie said.

"Hello," Nico said, and he sounded the most polite, and Bonnie pushed at him with her foot, hoping he'd take the hint and handle the actual explanation for what was going on. "Nice to see you, Stefan."

"Bonnie, are you okay?" Elena asked.

"Hungover, wait, I didn't drink last night."

"When you deal with the elements, and do it with someone, it's exhausting." Nico was trying to be nice, but Bonnie saw him squint at their guests in confusion. "Did you break in?"

"I can pick a lock," Stefan said.

Nico's glare turned to Damon, who lifted his hands and denied responsibility. "I've always told him he should knock if he doesn't want to get an eyeful."

"That's why you never do," Elena said.

"I've seen it," Damon said."And unless you want to as well, get out of here and let me get something on."

Elena grabbed for Bonnie's arm. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

Bonnie rolled out of the bed in the other direction, and said to Nico, "Are there leftovers? I'm starving."

"We didn't have breakfast or lunch," Nico agreed, and Bonnie tucked her hand in the crook of his arm and they walked downstairs like that.

Stefan and Elena followed with bewilderment widening their eyes and a lot of sideways glances being exchanged.

"Bonnie, what's going on?" Elena asked as Nico started up the espresso machine in what was his default mode, and Bonnie got out five mugs and then began browsing through the contents of the fridge.

"We're going to eat, if I can find something edible." Bonnie paused when she saw the pan of tiramisu, considered things like nutrition and rules, then shrugged and pulled it out. "We need forks, they're in the center drawer."

Stefan got them out, and as Nico began passing around steaming cups of coffee, Damon sauntered in. He kissed Nico lingeringly on the mouth, took his cup, and then went to Bonnie and kissed the top of her head, dancing out of the way when she swiped at him.

"Are you three all-" Elena took a big sip of her coffee, and Damon smirked as he sectioned off a forkful of tiramisu and offered it to Bonnie. He was baiting Elena and his brother, but somehow she knew that wasn't all he was doing, and so she accepted the bite.

"Thanks."

The next few pieces went to Nico, and then Damon took one for himself.

When Stefan and Elena didn't show any signs of moving, Damon waved a hand at the pan. "It's good, Nico made it."

"Have some," Bonnie urged, and when Elena did, Bonnie smiled at her, trying to pull this situation out of being horribly awkward and into a middle ground.

"It's great, thank you," Elena said, eyes still wide, and her focus definitely not on what she was eating.

"Bonnie, this is crazy," Elena said to her, crowding up next to her and watching Damon and Nico move in and out of each other's space, not brushing up against each other, but very blatantly as ease.

"I don't think so," Bonnie said. "I told you what I was doing."

"You said that you wanted to get away, what's with the vacation with Damon?"

"He introduced me to Nico."

"That was convenient, what's he's going to want for this favor?"

"I'm doing a spell for him."

Elena paled. "You're joking, Bonnie, after the last one, how can you even want to try that?"

"Don't tell me what I should do," Bonnie said. "Grams would have walked away from that tomb, but she let you get Stefan out."

"I had to find Damon," Stefan said. "He would have been trapped."

"Yeah, witches can be a little vindictive," Damon said blandly, and Nico coughed sharply.

"You've learned this through trial and error."

"Mostly error," Bonnie said, and Damon leaned into her, narrowing his eyes, and his pupils expanded and contracted.

"Don't even try those mind tricks on me," Bonnie said and gave him a little jolt with her finger tips, like flicking off static electricity, only with more force behind it.

Stefan stared hard at both of them, and when Nico interceded with a hand on Damon's hip and smiled at Bonnie, Stefan held back what he had been about to say.

"How long are you going to stay?" Elena asked.

"I don't know, until I'm ready to go home."

"You can stay as long as it takes," Nico said, and Elena jerked her head in his direction. "School starts in a week."

Nico was still standing with a hand resting on Damon's skin and so close to Bonnie that if either one of them reached out, they'd be standing united in an undeniable way.

It came to her in a rush, she was standing in the kitchen of a house that didn't belong to her, the guys she'd slept with last night weren't her boyfriends and her best friend thought she'd gone crazy. Finally, she knew her hair was a hopeless mess, and she was sure she was still throwing off sparks from the spell. Just as she began to feel a little shaky, Damon reached around Nico and handed her a glass of wine.

"It's a bit early to start drinking," Bonnie said.

"You need it," Damon said, and when Bonnie shrugged and drank half the glass in one gulp, Elena blinked, and Damon snorted.

"Did you want the bottle?"

"No, I'm good," Bonnie said, and leaned heavily on Nico when he helpfully moved closer.

"Bonnie, what is all of this?" Elena waved her hands at the kitchen, and the situation in general.

"I've been working on stuff."

"You couldn't do that at home?"

"There wasn't anybody who could help me," Bonnie said, and admitted the rest. "I had to get away."

"From everything?" Elena meant to say everyone, and herself most of all, and Bonnie knew it. What she had gone through, being kidnapped, the spell, Grams dying, none of that was Elena's fault, but at times it seemed like it should be, and Bonnie couldn't have said that to Elena's face, not and be okay with it the next day.

"Are you and Damon friends now?"

Bonnie scoffed. "No way."

Damon raised an eyebrow, and he wasn't alone. Taking in the incredulous expressions of every single other person in the room, Bonnie groaned.

"Okay, so I probably won't kill him for annoying me. But, I still think setting vampires on fire is a great way to get them to leave you alone." She smiled fiercely at Damon, and he acted like she'd pulled her shirt up and flashed him.

"Nicely played." When he moved around Nico to brush a hand against her hair, Bonnie rolled her eyes and tolerated it for five seconds, which was five longer than she would have last week, and then she grabbed his wrist, and shook her head.

"That's enough, I'm getting a really disturbing vibe when you do that, like you want to start brushing my hair."

"You could put a streak in it, that might be fun," Damon said, and Bonnie cut that one off fast.

"Stay with us, Elena is trying to tell me what a bad friend I am and how I've run out on my life." She glanced at Elena, who was apparently using glaring to communicate instead of lecturing. "You want me to go back."

"Unless you're going to set up shop here doing, I don't even know what," Elena said.

"I could figure it out, I'm doing that right now," Bonnie said.

"We're not saying you aren't," Stefan said. "It's just that there are still things in Mystic Falls for you."

"I'll get your bag," Damon said, and Nico called after him.

"Don't forget your coat, and that stuff you left last time."

"I thought you wanted to use it again," Damon said, and Nico covered his eyes with the hand that wasn't still resting on Bonnie's shoulder.

"Not right now, but thank you."

"I don't know," Bonnie said to Elena, and then added. "I don't want to either, and neither do you."

"I never do," Stefan said and looked resigned. "I'll hear about it later though."

"Don't tell me that," Nico said, and Bonnie winced, because knowing that the guy you sometimes slept with told his brother about it was nothing she would ever have to deal with and was extremely glad of it, because she could tell that, now that she and Damon were talking more, he'd be around more than she could imagine.

"I don't want to know either," Bonnie said, and when Damon came into the room again, he eyed them all and adjusted the way his jacket hung. Bonnie's bag was over one shoulder and he nodded at her. "You want to ride back with me or them?"

Before this, when Bonnie was still angry, she would have chosen to go with Damn because it wasn't what she should do, but now she could see that, and knew what it would mean.

"Why don't you and Stefan ride back together, and I'll go with Elena," Bonnie said.

Stefan did a double take, and Damon laughed.

Nico watched them head out to their cars, and when Damon had slammed the trunk closed, propped his shoulder against the door frame, not speaking, but Bonnie glanced from him to Damon, and bit her lip.

"He's not going to-" Elena whispered, and Bonnie shrugged. It was nearly impossible to predict what Damon was going to do, and he and Nico had been giving each other some intense looks while Elena and Bonnie talked, and Nico came down the steps, a rueful smile on his face when Damon came over, and he moved in for a kiss that went on until Bonnie cleared her throat.

"Okay, you can do that the next time you see each other, if we get going now, we'll be home before midnight."

Damon was running a hand down Nico's chest, and basically feeling him up in front of them, and he didn't acknowledge Bonnie, but finally, Nico gently disengaged himself with a last kiss. "Now that you've made a scene, are you happy?"

"Very," Damon said, and stepped away.

Nico smiled at Bonnie, and she lifted a hand and waved hesitantly at him, and Nico waved back. "He has my number, call me if you need help with anything." He nodded, and Bonnie knew he meant the spell for finding Katherine, and when she did get that request, she wasn't going to pass up having some help.

"Including Damon?" Bonnie asked.

"Definitely," Nico said, and gave Bonnie a smile that she couldn't help but return, because they both knew what she'd be dealing with.

"Let's go," Damon said, and ran a hand over Bonnie's arm as he went by, and did it just slowly enough for her to notice.

She didn't comment, but climbed into one car with Elena, and Damon took the wheel of his own, Stefan getting in alongside him. As Elena put the car in gear and they headed out of the driveway, she turned around to watch Nico for as long as she could see him.

"You're coming back here," Elena said, and Bonnie finally faced forward.

"I am, but not right now." She and Elena weren't looking directly at each other, but she thought they were thinking the same thing. "I have what I need."

"What about what you want?"

Bonnie smiled. "That too, even if not all of it's in Mystic Falls."

"Some of it is, though," Elena said, and Bonnie sighed heavily.

"I'm not admitting anything."

"Too late," Elena said, and Bonnie slumped down in her seat, but smiled in spite of herself most of the way home.


End file.
